Relocation is moving somewhere that represents your target community. Some might relocate literally by living in local neighborhoods to understand what their families are dealing with. Your actions may look different.

How can you put yourself in the shoes of each judah kid?

Maybe a student talks back because they feel misunderstood. Maybe a student isn't answering questions in front of the whole group because they are being belittled at home. There is a world of possibilities for why behaviors, foreign to us, are happening. Before assuming they don't like you or are "rude little kids", relocate yourself into their situation to see why they might be diverging.

Judah Kids is centered around the Gospel because that is the only infallible truth on this planet. We can look like any other program or learn from any other entity, but unless we are grounded in what God says we should be, we are missing out on building communities that continue in the new heavens and earth. We desire to set aside our ideals or world-bound systems to pursue a Holy perspective.

“You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. You can give a man a brain but you can’t make him think. You can smile all day and not be happy…” Coffey Anderson

We don’t demand anyone in our community to seek God’s love how we do, but we work to curate a space that gives opportunities for others to learn more about this love of God and invite them to exercise gratitude and worship with us!

In this focus, you are simply assembling the often complicated puzzle that is your target community. People reveal so much about their circumstances and needs just in the nuances of conversations. Training yourself to listen and notice these things gives you a huge advantage in loving your neighbors well!

Example: A little girl came to Judah Kids when she was going to Kindergarten with a heavy speech impediment. In her second semester of 1st grade, we noticed little progress had been made. I spoke with her mom and asked if she was in speech therapy. Upon finding out she wasn't, we started working on her consonants in our reading time. By the end of the day, she was glowing about hearing sounds come out of her mouth that she'd not been able to make before!

Your stance coming into this focus should be prepared to disappoint. There is absolutely too much need for one group or individual to meet in your community. The assurance you might need to constantly repeat is that the Lord is NOT a God of scarcity, but One of abundance!

Look at your tangible resources/abilities and pair them with the short-term needs of your community. The long-term goals are most efficiently accomplished in the manner you tackle the short-term needs.

Example: Our long-term goals are to (1) cultivate a self-sustainable community of young artists and musicians (2) reach entire families with the Hope of the gospel and see lives transformed for Christ.

In our midst, we had musicians, artists, and a giving church. We saw some need in our community for affordable child care and, after the pandemic, academic support for struggling students. We decided to pair our resources/abilities and the needs of the community to create an after-school program that picks up from multiple schools, teaches art and music, shares the gospel, and provides tutoring all for $3 a week. See the correlation? Where can you assess needs and make a difference?